Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I am presently stuck in Philadelphia. I would prefer to be on my way to San Francisco. Failing thus far, I will try to learn from the many things that went wrong.

My first mistake was that I don't like to get to the airport early before my flights. Usually I get away with it, but today would have been different if I'd started earlier. US Airways has lots of flights from Boston to Philadelphia, and I'm confident that the one 30 minutes before mine left with empty seats. I wish I could have asked to board that one, but they closed the gate as I got there. Leave home a little earlier.

I never did like US Airways and still don't. I took this free trip to use up my frequent flyer miles, but I'll try not to fly with them again. When they learned that our takeoff would be delayed due to weather, they quickly locked the door on the plane and moved away from the gate so we couldn't get off. Don't fly US Airways.

We arrived in Philly five minutes before my onward flight to SFO. I ran to the gate, but got there two minutes late. They sent me to an overcrowded customer service desk. I should have opened the Kayak app on my phone and asked for a list of options getting to my destination. Instead, I talked to a not-so-helpful agent on the phone while waiting to reach a more-helpful agent at the counter.

The agent at the counter found me a way to San Francisco that gets me there almost in time for the ballet, but if I had known to ask, I would have pressed her to send me sooner via Las Vegas. She didn't offer that, I think, because it would have put me onto a partner airline and may have cost them some sort of a fee. But I didn't even ask. It was only after this that I discovered the Kayak app.

By the time I went to ask, the agent on the Las Vegas flight wanted to close the doors and she wouldn't let me in without properly-printed tickets. Once again, I needed that app on my phone. Next time and ever after, it's going to be there.